​After months of waiting and preparations, 6th February witnessed an exciting and inspiring Nationals in Kolkata! Having participation from various parts of India, this event surely helped to bring the Girevoy community closer in India and most definitely helped raise the standards of lifting in the country.

Overall, there were 30 participants and almost 6 hours of lifting that took place during the event. A few Indian, as well as an Asian record was broken in the process of the competition. ​

Some of the firsts in India that we got to see during the competition include:

Gunjan Ahalani became the first Indian woman to do a 16 kgs biathlon

First ever Women's only snatch relay was held

First time 20 kgs was used in Men's snatch relay

Rajiv Sculler became the first Indian to achieve the CMS rank twice

First time a tied score was witnessed in women's professional snatch with 16 kgs between Alina Martuniuc Ruhail and Pari Mandal.

​Besides these firsts, there was many more exciting results. Vinay Sangwan broke the current Asian 20 kgs Long Cycle record by performing 66 repetitions. He also won an extremely close battle with Sayantan Majumder by just 0.01 point!

Overall, Nationals 2016 saw heavier weights being lifted and people going the distance more consistently, which is a positive sign for Girevoy Sport in India. A lot of talent was witnessed and we hope that everyone can reach their potential in this sport in the future.

As organizers, we paid extra attention to the finer points of lifting like fixations, etc which certainly helped raise awareness among the lifters and will help them for success in big international competitions. ​

After the event it was party time, and there were some great off the platform fun moments between the Fitter Strength team and the visiting guests. Clearly a sign that the Indian kettlebell community is much more than just those tough 10 minutes on the platform.

With a great Nationals 2016 experience, we at Fitter Strength and the Indian GS community look forward to National 2017 and hope that it will be even bigger and better! As usual, all this is only possible when we have the support of some key people who have helped us far.

First of all, we would like to thank the Bengal Rowing Club for allowing us to conduct the Nationals in their prestigious club, and for the wonderful facilities provided by them. We are truly thankful to our first ever sponsors, Emami Boro Plus, who helped us organize the event on a bigger scale. It is encouraging to see big corporate brands come forward and help grow a relatively new sport like ours. And of course, our core team at Fitter Strength who worked tirelessly to make sure that the event went smoothly, deserves a big thanks!